Indian mattress at Christie's auction

ART: Bharti Kher's acrylic on mattress wasn't the only 'new art' from India selling in Hong Kong.

Subodh Gupta's seminal work that consists of installations that use a bicycle and milk cans to great effect, has now become an international symbol for the artist, having also made it to Louis Vuitton's Indian exhibition in Paris.

But in Hong Kong, at Christie's auction of Asian Contemporary Art, it was his utensils that went up for grabs, as also fibreglass bulbs, wire, twine, plastic, stamps, bidis (yes, those things Indians of limited resources smoke), along with gouache, graphite, charcoal, oil, acrylic and glass markings.

The young auction (implying artists and collectors, both) featured the new rung of names who have been making strides internationally "" besides Gupta, there was Jittish Kallat, Bharti Kher, Atul and Anju Dodiya, Sunil Gawde and Ashim Purkayastha "" as well as a bold breed of artists whose names may "not yet be familiar in trendy drawing rooms in Greater Kailash, but who have potential to make the big leap straight into Kensington", according to a gallerist.

"It also establishes the next generation firmly on the international firmament," said the gallerist. "If you've been auctioned by a prestigious auction house, your credentials are established." And by that measure, we should get ready to welcome L N Tallur, Tushan Joag, Hema Upadhyay, Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra.

It was their $936,400 contribution to the overall $11,302,928 sale that was of considerable interest at the Hong Kong auction. The 11 Indian (and two Pakistani) artists had contributed only 20 works to the 163-lot sale, and held their own, significantly. Several of the younger artists also managed world records, among them Gawde, Tallur, Joag and Upadhyay.

The highest prices were commanded by Subodh Gupta ($185,806 for Idol Thief, $ 131,612 for Untitled""Airport series), Anju Dodiya ($170,322 for The Site, consisting of acrylic on mattress), and Atul Dodiya (What's the Darkness on the Eyes, $ 108,387), while the stakes for the lowest were closely held by Hema Upadhyay ($7,432) and Purkayastha ($7,742).

According to another collector in Delhi, what is significant about the auction is the availability, for the first time on the international auction circuit, of young artists whose prices remain modest.

It is this trend that signals the arrival of Indian art on the international circuit.
Amen.